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With still hours to go until midnight a spokesperson said the department had already seen 173 people come through their doors. This number is more than expected at this point on New Year's Eve.

Earlier Stockport NHS trust had sent a message from their Twitter account saying: "Stepping Hill Hospital A&E is completely overwhelmed at the moment. We need people to only come if it's an emergency."

In a statement the hospital said: "Our beds are full, which is causing problems as we need to admit the very ill people.

"We currently have 68 people in our A&E department, so people who are not critically ill are having to wait many hours to be seen.